Charter city effort moving forward

ESCONDIDO  Escondido has scheduled public hearings this spring for a charter city measure that could appear on the November 2014 ballot.

The hearings have been scheduled for 4:30 p.m. April 9 and 6 p.m. May 21.

City voters rejected a charter city ballot measure in 2012, but a majority of the City Council decided this winter to try again.

Because they can exempt themselves from many state regulations, charter cities can have more autonomy than so-called “general law” cities regarding fees, zoning, taxation and other issues.

Half of San Diego County’s 18 cities have charters, and half don’t. The ones with charters are San Diego, Chula Vista, Oceanside, Carlsbad, El Cajon, Vista, San Marcos, Santee and Del Mar.

Escondido’s primary motive for the previous charter effort was an exemption from paying prevailing wages, which are typically union-negotiated pay rates. But council members have decided to leave that out of the new charter because of a new California law that would end all state funding for cities with such exemptions in their charters.

Voters rejected Escondido's previous charter 53 percent to 47 percent in November 2012. City officials blamed that defeat on the charter's inclusion of a proposal to divide Escondido into geographic election districts to settle a voting-rights lawsuit. The new charter won’t include that proposal because Escondido switched to district elections last year to settle the suit.